A Summoner's Fantasy
by Shade Sorcerer
Summary: A summoner from outside Gensokyo, with the dream of becoming the greatest summoner that has ever lived, enters Gensokyo in the hopes of making a contract with the 'Forbidden Summon'. A collab with Akai Blues. On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1 Rewrite

A Summoner's Fantasy

Prologue

New S Note: Hey, so Blues finally has an FF account. It's Akai_Blues. He probably won't write anything of his own for a month and a half or so, though… Even if I do get on his ass about it. Also, on a less pleasant note, this particular story has been rendered non-canon by the Touhou 15 demo. Of course, at the time of starting it, it worked perfectly, and I said I would finish everything I started on this site, so we're going to work with it anyways. Just, know that the whole concept behind this story was made prior to Touhou 15, and thus everything that came about in LoLK doesn't exist. This won't come into play until the actually new chapter is posted, but still. A heads up nonetheless. Also, unfortunately, due to the lack of reviews, this is a rather minor rewrite, except few a few key parts Blues and I already knew about. I just want to remind everyone, reviews are how writers get better. DON'T BE AFRAID TO LEAVE A NEGATIVE REVIEW! I'm not going to yell at you, and I'll make sure Blues doesn't either. I may argue with you, but that just means that I actually am thinking about what you said. As I told Blues when I told him to review the parts I wrote: "I'm going to argue with everything you say, then realize 80% of what you said was true anyway."

A little girl in a green robe peered through a slightly open door, watching her mentor and an enemy summoner fighting. Her mentor clearly had the upper hand, but neither was able to land a killing blow. There was a brief pause in the fighting, during which the two held a conversation.  
"Instead of continuing this ad nauseum, I propose a challenge to you. If you succeed, then I shall concede defeat," the little girl's mentor's foe said.  
"If you think there is anything I am incapable of, I would be most pleased to prove you wrong," the little girl's mentor said.  
"If you truly are the greatest summoner that has ever lived, then you would be able to control the forbidden summon with ease, no? Do that, and I will not only concede my defeat, but also swear fealty to you," the enemy said.  
"Of course. There's absolutely nothing I can't do," The little girl's mentor said.  
The little girl put her hand to her forehead. _Of course. Her overconfidence is going to get her killed,_ she thought.  
Her mentor began the summoning ritual. Before she was halfway through, however, the Summoning Gate opened, and the forbidden summon made its entrance. The little girl's mentor was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye, and the other summoner was ripped apart shortly thereafter. The whole situation wrapped up in less than a quarter of a second. The forbidden summon had gone, and her mentor and her foe were but scraps on the ground.  
_She may have been easy to manipulate, but she was most certainly one of the most accomplished summoners in the world, _the girl thought. _So, if I can form a contract with the forbidden summon, then… I will be _the _most accomplished summoner that has ever lived, won't I?_ The girl grinned to herself. _Now, just to find out where to go._

Several days later, and the girl had left her small village, to search for that which had killed her teacher.

Chapter 1

This _is the gateway to the land of Japanese Mythology? It's rather… run-down, isn't it? Well, three-hundred years of my research oughtn't be wrong,_ the girl, Lydia, thought as she entered the broken-down shrine that was the gateway between Gensokyo and the outside world. The three hundred years since she had set out had changed the girl little. She still wore her slightly too big green robe. She still wore her green hair in a ponytail. The only real difference was that, at some point, she had bought green contacts. There was only one door in the place that looked well maintained. Lydia grumbled slightly, as she was forced to pull back the sleeve of her robe in order to grasp the handle. As she pushed through it, Lydia found herself in a much cleaner, well taken care of equivalent of the shrine she'd been in. _Right, as always,_ she thought. She exited the room. Outside, she saw a girl in red drinking tea. The girl turned around, hearing Lydia's footsteps.

"An outsider? How did you find your way in here?" the girl in red asked Lydia.  
"With hundreds of years of research, a few instances of shoplifting, more than a few headaches, and seeing somebody that taught me how to be a summoner kill herself out of hubris," Lydia said.  
"So, you're here on purpose. A Youkai?" the girl said.  
"Yes. Lydia Falkenrath, a Youkai Magician. And you're the peacekeeper, I suppose?" Lydia said.  
"Yeah. Reimu Hakurei," Reimu said.  
"So, would you happen to be able to direct me towards Youkai heavy areas?" Lydia said.  
Reimu pointed towards a mountain looming in the distance. "You see all that stuff? If it's not the village, you can find Youkai there. Heck, even if it _is_ the village, you can still find some Youkai there," she said. "Oh, before you go, though; Yukari gave me some copies of the rules to hand out to newcomers, in case she didn't get to them first. Wait here, please," Reimu said, before heading into the shrine. When she returned, she had a piece of paper in her hands. "The rules," she said, handing the paper to Lydia. "Make sure you read them before you get yourself into any trouble."  
Lydia thanked her, and headed off in the direction of the mountain Reimu had indicated.

As Lydia walked along the path, she noticed that the sun had almost set. _That's good. It'll be much easier to find Youkai at night._ She looked with interest upon the large bamboo forest in front of which she found herself. _And this is as good a place as any to be looking for them,_ she thought, entering.

Lydia pushed her way into the forest. She heard singing, and decided to follow it to its source. As she traveled, she noticed that it was getting harder to see. She also noticed that something smelled delicious. When she arrived in a small clearing, she saw a girl with wings. _A Youkai, to be sure,_ Lydia thought.  
"Excuse me, miss, but may I speak to you for a moment?" Lydia said, approaching the girl.  
"Yeah, sure. You want some of Mystia's Famous Grilled Lamprey? It's cheap," the girl, presumably Mystia, said.  
"No, though it does smell delicious. I was actually wondering… Might you be interested in forming a summoning contract with me?" Lydia said.  
"Eh? Never heard of that before. What is it?" Mystia said.  
"It's an agreement between two parties, one is the summoner, the other is the summon, and they essentially help each other with whatever they need help with. For the summoner, it's generally getting the summon to help in battle, while for the summon, it's generally menial chores or other such things." Lydia said.  
"Japanese, please?" Mystia said.  
"I help you do stuff, you help me fight stuff. So, would you like to form a contract?" Lydia said.  
"Well, I'm generally pretty busy with this, so I'm not sure. How exactly do I help you fight stuff?" Mystia said.  
Lydia mentally face-palmed, and, keeping her outward demeanor pleasant, said "I bring you to my location for a short period of time, during which you do what I tell you."  
"So I don't need to follow you around or anything, then. You planning on traveling a lot?" Mystia said.  
"Yes. I am trying to gather enough strength to challenge the Forbidden Summon, after all." Lydia said.  
"Sounds interesting… Tell you what. Beat me, and I'll think about agreeing with your summon-thingy," Mystia said, rising off the ground.  
Lydia rose from the ground as well, nervous about her first Danmaku duel.

Mystia began singing again, this time limiting the summoner's view. Even in her limited range, however, she was astonished by the sheer amount of bullets she could see. She fired off a few random shots, before flying straight into a bullet and taking a hit. Her next two hits took just as short a time, and the match was over in less than twenty seconds. She hadn't even had time to summon a group of lesser fairies to help her fight.

"That was… pathetic. You're not going to get anywhere like that, girl. With skills like that, I doubt you'd even be able to beat my friend Daiyousei. ... Want some Lamprey? I'll give you one for free. Pity prize," Mystia said, floating back to the ground.  
"Thank you," Lydia said. "Just to let you know, though, I'll be challenging you again when I get better."  
"I'll just stomp you again, probably," Mystia said. Lydia sighed, then took a bite of the lamprey and walked off.


	2. Chapter 2 Rewrite

Chapter 2

Lydia wandered the path she had followed to get to the Bamboo Forest. Realizing that she desperately needed the practice, she had a few matches with the lesser fairies that crossed her path. She was nowhere near holding her own against someone like Mystia, but she noticed a great deal of improvement. She no longer lost her wits due to the amount of bullets involved in a danmaku match, though it was still distracting. She noticed herself becoming better at the pattern recognition necessary for a duel, and she began practicing slightly more complex patterns with the group of lesser fairies she had been summoning than just shooting bullets at random. After a few hours of this, she came upon another forest, this one of trees. She entered, in the hopes of finding a lesser Youkai or greater fairy she could perhaps contract. Remembering Mystia talking about her friend "Daiyousei", she hoped maybe she could contract with the fairy, for she had to be a fairy with a name like that, and perhaps circumvent a fight with Mystia altogether. She didn't get her hopes too high, though, as it seemed from her observations that Danmaku was not only a common pastime, but also the way most problems were solved.

After a short time in the forest, she noticed a greater fairy flitting about. Lydia walked up to her and said "Excuse me, but are you Daiyousei?"  
The fairy spun around to face Lydia, and, while fiddling with her hands, said "Uh, y-yes. H-how did you know?"  
"I didn't, but someone recommended that I go looking for someone named Daiyousei, to form a summoning contract with her. With Daiyousei, I mean," Lydia said. _It's not exactly a lie, though I'll have to make sure Daiyousei doesn't go too far into detail to Mystia about how she got contracted,_ the summoner thought.  
"A s-summoning contract? What's that?" Daiyousei said. And so, for the second time that night, though likely it was technically morning by that point, Lydia explained the details of a contract.  
"I'm not sure… My friends might not want me to. They might think it's too dangerous," Daiyousei said.  
"Hm… That would be a problem, but… What if I beat you in a duel? That way, your friends will know that I'll be able to take care of you, if any dangerous situations arise," Lydia said, ignoring that the fairy seemed to miss that she would, in fact, _not_ be following Lydia around.  
"I-I guess that works… Alright then. But, uh, please go kind of easy?" Daiyousei said. Lydia decided not to mention that she herself was barely competent at Danmaku.

The two rose into the air. "Fairy Dance," Lydia said, summoning a group of fairies. Daiyousei was a little taken back by this, but decided to focus on hitting Lydia nonetheless. Daiyousei shot a few bullets in Lydia's direction. Lydia was able to dodge the incoming blasts, while sending out her own. They all missed Dai. Before Dai could react, a few fairies circled her and fired at her. One hit Daiyousei. She launched a spread shot at Lydia's fairies and hit a few.

A small wave of bullets whizzed past Lydia, with one grazing her arm. Lydia called two fairies in front of her; partially out of strategy, partially out of fear. Her other summons chased Dai around. Despite the swarm chasing her, Dai was able to eliminate the two fairies guarding Lydia. She then shot a few bullets at Lydia and got her in the chest. Lydia lined the rest of her fairies up and they fired a long wall of bullets in Dai's direction. Dai barely escaped the wall. After escaping the attack, she flew towards Lydia and nailed her with another bullet.

Dai flew away from the attack, but went into a couple of Lydia's own blasts. Recovering, she launched waves of bullets at Lydia, who flew unsteadily backwards to dodge the first two waves, and sacrificed two fairies to stop the last. Lydia fired a few random shots, none of which hit anything. Dai flew around, trying to avoid the remaining fairies, but still shot nothing at them. Dai tried to fire more shots at Lydia, though they all missed, and Dai herself was shot down by the fairies. She fell to the ground.

"Looks like I won," Lydia said. She pulled a scroll out of the air, and started writing on it. "Here," she said, handing it to Daiyousei.  
"What is this?" Dai said.  
"Write your terms on this," Lydia said.  
Daiyousei paused. "Um..I don't actually know how to write," she said.  
"Alright. I'll do it for you then. What do you want in return for being one of my summons?"  
Daiyousei thought for a second. "I want….hmmmm.. I want a new friend," she said happily.  
Lydia smiled as she scribbled down Daiyousei's request. "Now, there is one more thing," Lydia said. "You will need to sign your name."  
"I, uh-" Daiyousei said.  
"Don't worry, I'll help you do it," Lydia handed Daiyousei the pen, then wrapped her hand around Daiyousei's, and helped her to write her name. "There. All done," Lydia said, smiling.

There was a bright flash of light from the scroll, and, after the light dissipated, there were two identical rings, set each with a green gemstone.  
"One for you," Lydia said, slipping the ring onto Daiyousei. "And one for me," Lydia said as she placed the second ring on herself. When Lydia placed a ring on her own hand, she felt something strange, almost as if there was a more intimate connection than was ever implied by her mentor. She made a mental note to write notes about it in her notebook later.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, Lydia said "So. Are you doing anything right now?"  
"No," Daiyousei said.  
"Good. Then, I'll be seeing you soon. I have a little grudge to settle," Lydia said.

Walking away from Daiyousei, Lydia's mind snapped back to what she had felt. She pulled a notebook from her tiny pocket dimension, along with another pen. She began to write the feeling that the ring gave her, and the added a couple of side notes, thoughts, and questions about it. She closed her book and headed back to Mystia, to see if she could beat her in a duel with an actual contract under her belt.


	3. First Contract

Chapter 2

First Contract

B. Note: Just barely got this one done on time. My sister decided that she owned my computer every time we tried to write.

* * *

Lydia wandered the path she had followed to get to the Bamboo Forest. Realizing that she desperately needed the practice, she had a few matches with the lesser fairies that crossed her path. She was nowhere near holding her own against someone like Mystia, but she noticed a great deal of improvement. She no longer lost her wits due to the amount of bullets involved in a danmaku match, though it was still distracting. She noticed herself becoming better at the pattern recognition necessary for a duel, and she began practicing slightly more complex patterns with the group of lesser fairies she had been summoning than just shooting bullets at random. After a few hours of this, she came upon another forest, this one of trees. She entered, in the hopes of finding a lesser Youkai or greater fairy she could perhaps contract. Remembering Mystia talking about her friend "Daiyousei", she hoped maybe she could contract with the fairy, for she had to be a fairy with a name like that, and perhaps circumvent a fight with Mystia altogether. She didn't get her hopes too high, though, as it seemed from her observations that Danmaku was not only a common pastime, but also the way most problems were solved.

After a short time in the forest, she noticed a greater fairy flitting about. Lydia walked up to her and said "Excuse me, but are you Daiyousei?"  
The fairy spun around to face her, and, while fiddling with her hands, said "Uh, y-yes. H-how did you know?"  
"I didn't, but someone recommended that I go looking for someone named Daiyousei, to form a summoning contract with her. With Daiyousei, I mean." Lydia said. _It's not exactly a lie, though I'll have to make sure Daiyousei doesn't go too far into detail to Mystia about how she got contracted._ the summoner thought.  
"A s-summoning contract? What's that?" Daiyousei said. And so, for the second time that night, though likely it was technically morning by that point, Lydia explained the details of a contract.  
"I'm not sure… My friends might not want me to. They might think it's too dangerous." Daiyousei said.  
"Hm… That would be a problem, but… What if I beat you in a duel? That way, your friends will know that I'll be able to take care of you, if any dangerous situations arise." Lydia said, ignoring that the fairy seemed to miss that she would, in fact, _not_ be following Lydia around.  
"I-I guess that works… Alright then. But, uh, please go kind of easy?" Daiyousei said. Lydia decided not to mention that she herself was barely competent at Danmaku.

The two rose into the air. "Fairy Dance" Lydia said, summoning a group of fairies. Daiyousei was a little taken back by this, but decided to focus on hitting Lydia nonetheless.

Daiyousei fired a stream of bullets at Lydia, who was grazed by the blasts. Lydia ordered her fairies to attack Dai. The fairies circled her and shot small, multi-colored bullets at Dai. Dai flew upwards and evaded the attack, but flew into a couple of Lydia's own blasts. Recovering, she launched waves of bullets at Lydia, who flew unsteadily backwards to dodge the first two waves, and sacrificed two fairies to stop the last.

Lydia fired a few random shots, none of which hit anything. Dai flew around, trying to avoid the remaining fairies, but still shot nothing at the fairies. Dai tried to fire more shots at Lydia, though they all missed, and Dai herself was shot down by the fairies. She fell to the ground.  
"Looks like I won." Lydia said. She pulled a scroll out of the air, and started writing on it. "Here" she said, handing it to Daiyousei.  
"What is this?" Dai said.  
"Write your terms on this." Lydia said.  
Daiyousei paused. "Um..I don't actually know how to write." she said.  
"Alright. I'll do it for you then. What do you want in return for being one of my summons?"  
Daiyousei thought for a second. "I want….hmmmm.. I want a new friend." she said happily.  
Lydia smiled as she scribbled down Daiyousei's request.  
"Now, there is one more thing." Lydia said. "You will need to sign your name."  
"I, uh-" Daiyousei said.  
"Don't worry, I'll help you do it." Lydia said.  
She handed Daiyousei the pen, then wrapped her hand around Daiyousei's, and helped her to write her name.  
"There. All done." Lydia said, smiling.  
There was a bright flash of light from the scroll, and, after the light dissipated, there were two identical rings, set each with a green gemstone.  
"One for you" Lydia said, slipping the ring onto Daiyousei. "And one for me." Lydia said as she placed the second ring on herself. When Lydia placed a ring on her own hand, she felt something strange, almost as if there was a more intimate connection than was ever implied by her mentor. She made a mental note to write notes about it in her notebook later.  
Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, Lydia said "So. Are you doing anything right now?"  
"No." Daiyousei said.  
"Good. Then, I'll be seeing you soon. I have a little grudge to settle." Lydia said.

Walking away from Daiyousei, Lydia's mind snapped back to what she had felt. She pulled a notebook from her tiny pocket dimension, along with another pen. She began to write the feeling that the ring gave her, and the added a couple of side notes, thoughts, and questions about it. She closed her book and headed back to Mystia, to see if she could beat her in a duel with an actual contract under her belt.


	4. Yoshika Ate All the Food

Chapter 3

Yoshika Ate All the Food

S. Note: It was recently brought to my attention that one should not end quotations with periods, but should instead use commas, if the dialogue tag occurs after the dialogue. Hence, I will be changing it for all future chapters. I know it's not really a big thing, but I like being correct. Even if I'm too lazy to actually go back and change it for the previous chapters. Also, titles are hard.

* * *

Lydia dejectedly walked away from the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She had failed against Mystia, again. She headed back to where she met Dai, hoping to run into another, weaker Youkai. She passed Dai, who consoled her for the loss, while wandering around.

After a bit of walking around, she noticed that it was getting unnaturally darker. Lydia walked around, hoping the cause of this to be another Youkai. Walking, barely able to see, she came across the figure of a blonde haired Youkai, humming a song to herself.  
"Excuse me," Lydia said to the girl.  
The girl spun in place. "Hello," she said, grinning. Something about that smile unnerved Lydia, but that pleased her. Unnerving Youkai were helpful Youkai to have as contractees.  
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to form a summoning contract with me?" Lydia said.  
"Uuu~. I'm huuungry. Get me some food please, lady. Then I'll be your friend!" the Youkai said.  
"And, what kind of food would you like, umm…" Lydia said, realizing she didn't yet know the Youkai's name.  
"Rumia. I want people food, please!" Rumia said.  
"People food, as in…?" Lydia said.  
"Food that is people," Rumia said matter-of-factly, nodding. Having been a Youkai for over three hundred years, Lydia had no particular aversion to the consumption of Humans. However, as non-lethal magic was the norm in Gensokyo, Lydia had to assume that getting a corpse would not be as easy as simply killing a wandering Human and being done with it.  
"Do you have any ideas as to where I might acquire some food?" Lydia said.  
"There's a cemetery by the flying boat that landed a while ago. Maybe you could find something there?" Rumia said.  
"Thank you. I'll try there first," Lydia said, heading off in the direction the little Youkai had pointed her.

After a short while of traveling, Lydia realized something about the seemingly simple Youkai she had just agreed to help. _She never asked me what a contract was… Even a fairy was smart enough to ask what she was getting herself into, so I don't think she was just being dense. Coupled with that smile of hers, she must know more than she lets on… _Lydia once again pulled out one of her notebooks and began writing her speculations on what exactly Rumia might be. When she looked up again, she noticed a ship-made-temple sitting in the middle of the field she had wandered into while writing. And, true to Rumia's word, there was a cemetery around the back. One with a pale, stiff corpse hopping around. Lydia hated Jiang-Shi, as they were one of the few mystical creatures a summoner could simply _not_ contract, no matter what. The closest thing was to contract the undead's master, but that only worked if said master wasn't human. Lydia cursed her lack of rice, and relegated herself to sneaking around. Undead were notoriously resilient, so fighting was out of the question, though that may just be the crazy movies of the outside she had seen getting things wrong, as usual.

It didn't take long for the Jiang-Shi to see Lydia's bright green clothes against the grey of the cemetery.  
"Hey, hey, what're you doing here? You're not supposed to be here, Seiga said. Seiga said nobody's supposed to be here," the Jiang-Shi said.  
Lydia sighed. "Fine. But, before I go, do you have any spare food?" she said.  
"No spare food. Yoshika ate all the food. No spare food," the Jiang-Shi said.  
"Alright, I guess I'll be going, then," Lydia said.

_Now what am I going to do? If that Jiang-Shi ate all the other corpses there, then I have no leads on how to get a dead body. I guess I could try to steal one from a different Youkai, but… Where?_ Lydia thought. She put her hand to her forehead and leaned against a tree. She pulled out her notebook and wrote down all the locations she had come across so far. She crossed off the cemetery, and the Hakurei shrine, and the forest she was currently in, since it was the forest Rumia lived in anyways. That left the bamboo forest and the path around the village that seemed mostly populated by humans. _So, it depends on how aggressive the Youkai are around here. So… Well, the village is closer, and has a high concentration of humans, so I'll start looking around there, I guess,_ she thought.


	5. Bondysnatching

Chapter 4

Bodysnatching

Lydia passed the village, making sure to go far enough away that a Youkai could hunt easily, and close enough that a Human would still be feasible prey. After a short while, she came across a red-haired Rokurokubi. The Youkai was nibbling on a corpse. Luckily for Lydia, the Youkai hadn't noticed her yet.  
_Now...How to get that Human from her. Hmmm, _Lydia thought.  
She whipped her notebook out again and scribbled down a couple of ideas on how to get the girl away from her food. After she had decided upon one, she closed the book.

Lydia said "Lunate Elf," and summoned Daiyousei. She also summoned a group of fairies. Pointing the fairies Daiyousei, Lydia said "Dai, I need you to go around that Rokurokubi and lead her away from that body. Okay?"  
"W-what?" Dai said.  
"Don't worry, these fairies will help you," Lydia said.  
"...Okay," Dai said.  
"But remember, you need to get her far enough away that I can escape with the body," Lydia said.

With that, she waited behind a tree, and Dai, with the fairies, flew behind the red-haired girl. They fired blasts at her head and prepared for a reaction. The Rokurokubi turned her head and dropped the body. She dashed towards Dai, firing a few bullets and maintaining a creepy look on her face. Some of the fairies surrounding Dai took the bullets for her. Dai sped away, looking back every few seconds to make sure that she was still being followed. _That's it. Keep going, _Lydia thought. Dai launched some blasts behind her, without any aim. She continued to bait the red-haired girl, but soon realized that her fairy meat shield was gone.  
_Okay. I can do this,_ Dai thought. She fired a spread-shot of bullets. The Rokurokubi evaded and responded by launching a laser at her. Dai was able to dodge, but had lost her focus.  
Lydia had gotten far enough that she had stopped being concerned with getting chased herself. _Almost there, _Lydia thought.

Dai continued to shoot at the Rokurokubi, and was met with a flurry of danmaku from the Youkai. Dai flew forwards, occasionally doubling back to confuse the Rokurokubi.  
Unable to split her focus between dodging to returning fire, Dai was forced to switch to the defensive. The Youkai cornered Dai between a patch of trees. She fired eye lasers at Dai, barely missing.

Lydia felt that she was far away enough, so she sent Dai back. She dragged the body to the forest and after not even a minute of dragging the corpse around, Rumia found her. "Ohh, you found people food! Thank you!" Rumia said.  
Lydia flopped the body on the dirt. Rumia ate the corpse.  
"So, did you enjoy your meal?" Lydia said.  
"Yep. That was fresher than I expected. Did you get it from that cemetery?" Rumia said.  
"No, there was Jiang-Shi there that already ate all the bodies. I had to steal one from another Youkai, a Rokurokubi near the village," Lydia said.  
"Really? Oh, right. A lot of the youkai have been acting weird lately," Rumia said.  
"So, now that you're finished, are you ready to make our contract?" Lydia said.  
"Yep," Rumia said.  
Lydia pulled the scroll out of the air. She handed a pen to Rumia. Rumia wrote on the scroll, and handed it to Lydia seconds later. On the scroll, Rumia had written 'I want food every time I'm summoned' as her condition. Lydia smiled and the scroll disappeared in a flash of light. Two rings with black stones appeared. Lydia gave one to Rumia, who put it on,, and placed the other on her own finger. Lydia noticed a strange feeling again coming from the ring, and Rumia tilted her head when she noticed Lydia looking at the ring.  
"What is it, lady?" Rumia said.  
"Oh nothing. I just felt weird when I put the ring on. Oh, and I'm Lydia, by the way," Lydia said.  
"Maybe it's your ability?" Rumia said.  
"My ability?" Lydia said.  
"Yep. Everybody has one," Rumia said.  
"Okay. So, what do you think I should do?" Lydia said.  
"It was when you put the ring on, right? So, focus on the ring," Rumia said. Lydia did so, and a small amount of darkness emanated from it.  
"It appears as though I can call upon your power without actually summoning you," Lydia said.  
"That's cool," Rumia said. "Now, where are you going next?"  
"Well, I was going to go try to fight Mystia again," Lydia said.  
"Well, Mystia's the strongest of our little group, so I'd actually see if you could go meet Cirno first. And anyways, she probably wouldn't want to lose," Rumia said.


	6. Official Member of Team 9

Chapter 5

Official Member of Team ⑨

_This looks like the place she described,_ Lydia thought, looking out over the lake. _Now, where's that igloo?_ she thought. She then remembered that Daiyousei and Cirno were closer friends than Rumia and Cirno were, and so decided to summon Daiyousei to help her find Cirno. "Lunate Elf."  
"Yeah, what is it, Lydi?" Daiyousei said.  
"Lydi?" Lydia said.  
"Well, yeah… Your name is kind of long, so I decided to shorten it," Daiyousei said.  
Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Says the person with six syllables in her name," she said.  
"Well, everyone else just calls me Dai, so, you're not the first person it's happened to," Dai said.  
"Okay, I mean, I don't really mind, I just wasn't expecting it. Anyways, I'm going to try to make a contract with Cirno, but I can't find her. Can you help?" Lydia said.  
"Oh, yeah, sure. You see that little island over there?" Dai said, pointing out onto the lake.  
Lydia looked in the direction that Dai was pointing. "Yeah, I think so," she said.  
"That's Cirno's island. If she's not just flying around above the lake, she'll probably be in her igloo there," Dai said.  
"Alright, thanks. You wanna come with, or would you rather go back to what you were doing?" Lydia said.  
"Uh, no, I wasn't really doing anything important anyways, so I'll go with you," Dai said.

"Hey, Dai, what're you doing here?" Cirno said, exiting her igloo.  
"Well, Lydi here wanted to meet you, so I showed her where you live," Dai said.  
Lydia said "Hello, I'm Lydia. I'm a summoner, and I was wondering if you would like to make a summoning contract with me."  
"Eh? What's that?" Cirno said.  
"Basically, she wants to be your friend, but she'll want you to help her fight stuff, because she's going to help you do stuff," Dai said.  
"Okay, then. But, if you want to join my group, you're gonna have to prove your worth!" Cirno said, rising into the air.  
Lydia rose as well. Recalling Rumia's words, she decided that she would allow herself to lose the fight.

Though, it turned out that 'allow' wasn't exactly the correct word. For a fairy, Cirno was exceptionally skilled at danmaku. For the first part of the fight, Lydia had summoned Rumia, hoping the darkness would disorient the Ice Fairy. However, Rumia's lasers were easy to see against the darkness, and Lydia's own green bullets were not terribly difficult to spot, either. Cirno's ice, on the other hand, didn't glow at all, and so was difficult to see until it was already too late. Lydia had taken two of her three hits then, before deciding to send Rumia back. After that, Cirno had used her Icicle Fall spell-card, which had taken Lydia by surprise, as she had yet to get into a fight in which a spell-card was actually used. She had gone to what looked like a safe spot in front of the fairy, when Cirno shot a bullet straight ahead of her, hitting Lydia right in the face, ending the match.

"That was pretty fun, even if you did freak a bit when I used my spell-card," Cirno said. "I like you, and, with proper training, I'm sure you'll make a fine member of team ⑨. So, you're in! I'll do that summony thingy, or whatever it was, too.  
"Team ⑨? Is that the name of the group?" Lydia said.  
"Yeah, did I not tell you? Sorry," Dai said.  
"It's fine. But, uh, I've only been here for about…" Lydia looked at the sky, which was just starting to glow brighter, "Maybe fourteen hours or something? So, what was that, spell-card you called it?"  
"You don't know about spell-cards? If you're new here, then you had to come through the shrine, right? Didn't the lady there tell you about them?" Cirno said.  
"No, she was too busy treating me like a five-year-old," Lydia said, with a bitter tone.  
"Yeah, she's really mean sometimes. But, she still helps everybody out, anyways," Dai said.

And so, Cirno explained the spell-card rules to Lydia, and Lydia explained contracts to Cirno. Cirno signed the contract, in return for Lydia calling her 'boss' and helping out with pranks every now and then. Cirno's ring was a glittering, light blue, and allowed Lydia some slight power over cold and ice.

"So, do you guys think I'm ready to fight Mystia yet?" Lydia said.  
"You wanna fight Mysti?" Cirno said.  
"Yeah, she's the first Youkai I met, after all, and she still hasn't formed a contract with me yet," Lydia said.  
"Ah, okay. So, Mysti wanted to fight you too? Well… Her ability is kinda OP, so… Dai, you think we should go get Wriggle first, or do you think Lydi'll be able to handle Mysti with just you, me, and Rumia?" Cirno said.  
"Wriggle?" Lydia said.  
"Yeah. She's the last member of our group. She's not very good at Danmaku, though," Dai said.  
"Well, what's her ability? I might be able to get something out of that," Lydia said.  
"Bugs. She controls bugs, and to be honest, it's kind of gross," Dai said.  
"Bugs?" Lydia said.  
"Yeah. Fireflies, in particular, seeing as she's a firefly Youkai," Cirno said.  
"Fireflies, huh?" Lydia said, grinning. "I think I should go meet her first, then."  
"You got a plan? Using fireflies?" Cirno said.  
"Yes. Who ever said all the lights in a danmaku duel had to be bullets?" Lydia said, grinning wickedly.  
"Ooh, that's nasty. I like it!" Cirno said.  
"I don't get it, what do you mean?" Dai said.  
"Well, if I have Rumia cover the area in darkness, then have Wriggle send out fireflies that aren't actually part of the duel, then maybe Mystia'll be distracted by the light from them, and run into normal bullets more easily. If you can't win with force, you gotta use your brain," Lydia said.  
"I can't wait to pull some pranks with you, Lydi. It's gonna be _real _fun if you're comin' up with stuff like this!" Cirno said.


	7. Tricksters of the Night

Chapter 6

Tricksters of the Night

S. Note: Sorry this was like, four weeks late. Life decided to all happen at the same time.  
B. Note: Yo, my bad that this is late. I had a superfluous amount of other work to do, and kinda put this off. Sorry. ^ ^'

* * *

Back in the Forest of Magic, Dai led Lydia to Wriggle's home.  
"Uh, hey, Wriggle?" Dai said.  
"Yeah, what's up?" Wriggle said, exiting her home. "And who's that?"  
"I'm Lydia, a summoner who has recently joined... It was team ⑨, right, Dai?" Lydia said.  
"Yes," Dai said.  
"Did you really tell her the name?" Wriggle said.  
"I didn't do it, Cirno did," Dai said.  
"What's wrong with the team name?" Lydia said.  
"It was originally an insult, but Cirno didn't realise, so that's what she started calling us, and she's kinda the leader-ish person," Wriggle said.  
"So, anyways, I'm a summoner, and I was wondering if you'd like to form a contract with me," Lydia said.

Once more, Lydia explained contracts, and Wriggle agreed, on the condition that Lydia try to keep Cirno from getting them in too much trouble. Each received an emerald ring, and Lydia figured that she would be able to have some control over bugs if she focused on hers.

"So, this'll probably be the last chance you get to fight Mysti today, Lydi," Dai said. "She'll probably be going to sleep soon, seeing as it's almost day."  
"That's what I figured, however I'm pretty sure this will be the last chance that I need," Lydia said.  
"Ooh, cocky," Wriggle said.  
"Are we going to go? You probably don't have that much time to talk, Lydi." Dai said.

* * *

"You're back again?" Mystia said.  
"Don't worry, this will be the last time," Lydia said.  
Mystia sighed, then said "Well, if that's the case, then fine, let's go."  
Mystia fired a bullet at Lydia. Lydia was able to dodge and returned fire. Now that she had more experience with danmaku battles, Mystia's cooldown spirals were nothing too difficult. Mystia pulled out her familiars who shot at Lydia while Mystia's spirals descended on Lydia.

Being unable to deal with both at the same time, Lydia used her first spell card. "Summon Sign ~ Lunate Elf." Daiyousei exited the summoning gate. Lydia remained focused on dodging and let Dai attack for her. Mystia retaliated with her own spell-card, "Moth Sign ~ Sphingid's Wingbeats." Her familiars dropped bullets towards Lydia and Dai. Mystia herself flew back and shot three lines of bullets at them. Luckily for Lydia the bullets weren't too fast, so she didn't have much trouble dodging them. Dai continued to shoot at Mystia, but paused when she nearly flew straight into a bullet. Lydia was moving more than she should have, which caused Mystia's bullet lines to be more spread out than normal, making it more difficult for both Lydia and Dai. Dai tried shooting at the familiars, but the bullets passed through them instead of actually hitting them. Upon seeing this, Lydia started firing again, aiming at Mystia through the familiars that weren't behind Mystia. The two of them continued this strategy until Mystia was finished and went back into cooldown phase. Mystia's spirals were thicker this time, and Lydia had to take more care in dodging them. Mystia also sent her familiars at Lydia and Dai, with each one dragging a line of large bullets behind them. Some familiars went towards Dai, but she was able to get out of their way. After the familiars passed Dai, the bullets that had been trailing behind them scattered into random directions. Lydia didn't want to be spending as much effort on evasion as she was, but also didn't want to strain herself to go offensive. Mystia continued her spirals.

"Summon Sign ~ Lovestruck Tomboy," Lydia said. Due to the Spell-card Rules, Daiyousei disappeared. Cirno popped out of the summoning gate and began firing away. Lydia and Cirno fired in unison, aiming at Mystia from two different angles. Mystia was grazed by some of the bullets, but was able to dodge all of them. Cirno was almost able to drive Mystia into one of Lydia's blasts, but a familiar's shots intercepted Lydia's.  
"Hawk Sign ~ Ill-Starred Dive," Mystia said. Mystia sang and Lydia's sight lessened. Mystia's familiars flew diagonally away from her, and after a few meters, turned and crossed each others paths. The familiars left bullets in their trail that turned into other blasts that flew diagonally. Lydia and Cirno were just barely able to dodge the bullets. Cirno tried to fire an icicle, but it missed and flew through a familiar. Another wave of familiars flew diagonally from Mystia from two different angles and then turned and crossed each other, firing bullets. Cirno made her way through the pattern of bullets so that she was positioned in front of Mystia. She fired three lines of bullets, but Mystia had enough time to evade them, and kept singing. Lydia and Cirno continued to dodge and shoot until Mystia's card was ended.

Mystia pulled out her last spell-card, "Night Blindness ~ Song of the Night Sparrow." Mystia started singing louder, limiting Lydia's view even more. Bullets entered Lydia's view and she was astonished by the number of them coming at her from different directions. Lydia desperately tried to dodge the bullets. A bullet flew straight into Lydia's chest. It knocked her back a little bit. Recovering, Lydia retaliated with her last spell card, "Multicast ~ Tricksters of the Night." Rumia and Wriggle exited the summoning gate. Rumia's darkness spread throughout the area. Wriggle sent out her fireflies in a bullet pattern. Lydia couldn't tell if her plan was working, but she fired nonetheless. Rumia spread bullets in Mystia's direction. Mystia continued her rapid fire, but was concerned about the number of 'bullets' that surrounded her, so she changed her movements a little. Lydia was worried about how long it was taking to finish Mystia. Wriggle sent her fireflies in a pincer maneuver at Mystia. Mystia had to stop flying in the direction she was going, and swerve to her left. She swerved into a barrage of Rumia's bullets. Mystia attempted to fly away from them, but stopped as she was going to run into a firefly. The bullets blasted her in the back.

Mystia stood up. "Okay, you win," Mystia said, "I'm surprised though, Rumia and Wriggle aren't that good at danmaku."  
"Actually, we used Rumia's darkness to make Wriggle's fireflies look like bullets," Lydia said.  
"Seriously? I want a rematch," Mystia said angrily.  
"Sorry, we already had an agreement that you'd sign the contract if I won," Lydia said.  
Mystia sighed. Lydia pulled out the contract and pen and had Mystia sign it. Two purple rings appeared, and Lydia and Mystia each put on their respective rings.  
_Well _that _took longer than I would have hoped,_ Lydia thought. She said "Thank you."

Cirno went up to Lydia. When she saw that Lydia wasn't battered, she grinned  
"Yay, you won! Congratulations," Cirno said.  
Lydia smiled, and said "Thank you. I couldn't have done it without your team's help."  
"Anytime," Cirno said, nodding, "Let's go for a celebratory prank!"  
"Oh? Who are we going to be pranking?" Lydia said.  
"The guard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Cirno said.


	8. Lydi's First Prank

Chapter 7

Lydi's First Prank

Cirno gathered the rest of the gang, except Mystia who stayed home to sleep, and led them to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. "So, uh, how are we going to do this?" Lydia said.  
"Well, I hired you to be a planner, so plan!" Cirno said.  
"Uh, right. I've never actually done anything like this, but I'll try," Lydia said. "So… the gatekeeper is a Youkai, right?" Cirno nodded. "So, she won't be too hurt by getting frozen, would she? So, we lead her into the water, and you freeze it, Boss,"  
"Hm… Well, actually… I've always wanted to see what's inside the mansion. You think you could get us in there?" Cirno said.  
"Well, if I managed to get in there by myself, I could just summon the rest of you inside," Lydia said.  
"Remember what I said about not getting us in trouble, Lydi?" Wriggle said.  
"If I summon you in, I can just send you back out if anything really bad starts happening," Lydia said.  
"How would you get out, then, Lydi?" Daiyousei said.  
"Well, a summoner isn't limited to bringing others to them. I can also send myself to you, if things really get nasty," Lydia said.  
"Oh, really? That's pretty cool," Cirno said. "So, how're we gonna do this?"  
"So, getting her away from the gate… Is she easily scared, or is she more likely to chase people?" Lydia said.  
"Well, she's easy to startle when she's asleep like that, but she generally just chases us off after we wake her up," Cirno said.  
"Okay, well… So, Rumia, you cover the area in darkness before we wake her up. Wriggle, you set up some fireflies in a path to the lake. Dai and Boss, you keep the gatekeeper busy so she follows you, while you follow the fireflies to the lake. I'll sneak in while she's distracted," Lydia said.  
"Alrighty then, sounds good," Cirno said.

Cirno made an ice ball and aimed it at Meiling, smiling in anticipation. Rumia blanketed the area in darkness while Wriggle set up the fireflies. Daiyousei flitted about nervously. Lydia hid in the bushes, ready to move as soon as Rumia left to follow Meiling.

Cirno threw the ice ball at Meiling. "Uh-bu-whu- Hey! Get back here, you stupid fairy!" Meiling ran after Cirno, who blew a raspberry at her while flying away. The ice fairy also threw more ice balls at the gatekeeper. Daiyousei mostly just nervously followed behind Cirno. Rumia and Wriggle followed behind Meiling to do their respective jobs. Once Lydia could see, she flew over the front gate and to the door of the mansion. She tried to open it, but it was locked. Meiling sensed that someone was trying to get into the mansion, so she turned around and ran for the door.  
"Lydi, watch out!" Wriggle shouted, after getting out of the gatekeeper's way.

Lydia pulled on the door harder, with no success. _Damnit, how am I supposed to get in? Locked door… Smash? No, nothing to smash with. But, ice…_ "I call upon thy power!" she said, creating a key made of ice from Cirno's ring. She shoved it in the keyhole, but it wouldn't turn, as it was the wrong shape. Looking back, she saw Meiling closing in on her. She jaggled the key, messing with the shape of the head, until the door finally unlocked. She swung it open, flew in, and slammed it shut behind her. She heard the thud as Meiling ran into the door, and decided it would be smart to freeze the door shut. It wasn't a very impressive defense, merely a thin strand of ice connecting the edge of the door to the wall beside it, but it would work for a short while. She noticed some stairs headed downwards and decided to go that way.

After she got downstairs, Lydia summoned all of team ⑨ sans Mystia. There were two hallways, one red and one purple. Cirno wanted to head down the red hallway, but Rumia said that that was a bad idea, so the group went down the purple hallway.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my library?"  
The original members of team ⑨ scattered upon hearing the voice, but as it didn't sound entirely hostile, Lydia stayed to see who it was. A magician in pale pink and purple nightwear leisurely floated around a bookshelf. Lydia bowed and said "I apologize for intruding. I am Lydia Falkenrath, a summoner from Germany. This is quite the impressive collection you have, miss…?"  
"Patchouli Knowledge. Hm… I've never actually met a summoner before. I imagine those with you were summoned by you," Patchouli said. "I have a few books on summoning, but I'm not sure how accurate they are. Summoning seems like somewhat of a waste for rather little return."  
"One could consider it that, if one is incapable of befriending powerful Youkai," Lydia said. "Or if one is not terribly outgoing. A summoner's summons become more powerful the better the relation between them is, after all."  
"One must be outgoing to be a summoner? Well… Perhaps it's something to try. I've mastered my own branch of magic, after all," Patchouli said.  
"Maybe you would consider forming a summoning contract with me then? It's one of the first lessons my mentor taught me after I became a Youkai Magician. It does help to know the magic from both sides," Lydia said, pulling a scroll out of the air.  
Patchouli grabbed the scroll and wrote her terms in elegant cursive. Lydia was to teach her more about summoning whenever she was able, and in return Patchouli would help her in her endeavors. Lydia signed her own name, sealing the contract. They each received a mauve ring, before one of the upper floor doors burst open. "Patchouli! What are you doing letting the intruder into your library?" a vampire called into the room.  
Lydia said "I apologize for intruding in your mansion. I am-"  
"An intruder. Now, get out, or I will force you out," the vampire said.  
Wriggle came out from behind a bookshelf. "Lydia, I feel like we should probably get out of here…"  
Rumia flew over as well. "Yeah. It's probably a bad idea to stay."  
Cirno said "C'mon guys, we can take her!"  
Daiyousei did not agree. "Um… You said you can send us out of here, right? I think that's a good idea."

"Very well then. Once more, I apologize for intruding," Lydia said. "Reverse by Half ~ She Who is Deaf to All but the Song!" Five summoning gates opened, and pulled Lydia and team ⑨ through them.

"Mmgh, I thought I told you guys I was going to sleep," Mystia said, after being woken up by the arrival of five people in her rather small house.  
"I'm sorry, but we ran into some trouble, and this was the quickest way out," Lydia said.  
"I still think we coulda taken her," Cirno said.  
"Probably not. But, how did you get that magician to not attack you when she met you?" Rumia said.  
"Well, it's a little trick common amongst summoners. If one introduces him- or herself in the fashion I did, it puts the other person in a positive mood. I generally don't like to use it, except in desperate situations. Messing with another's mind is… unsavory," Lydia said.  
"Yeah, yeah, that's all fine and good, but can you get out of my house? I'm kind of trying to go to sleep here," Mystia said.  
"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, Mysti," Cirno said. Everyone but Mystia filtered out of the night sparrow's house, and Lydia decided to wander the bamboo forest looking for more Youkai to befriend.


	9. Chapter 9

**S&amp;B Note: Unfortunately, this story is kind of crashing and burning. So, we're rewriting the whole thing. And no, that's not code for "We're going to completely forget about this story and do other things", the original story premise is good, it's just the little bits that aren't working. So, we're going on hiatus for a bit while we tear it to pieces and put it back together. Also, when this comes back, it will **_**not**_ **be a part of my series of random connected Touhou fics. That's just more stuff than I feel like dealing with.**


End file.
